Beautiful pics Jonas-I worked in the YNpark in 1964 @ Degnans and the Ahwahnee…wish I’d been the amateur photographer I am now. I remember my co-workers as “characters” in this fishbowl of a stage for visitors from all over the world. Memories never fade of that year
Many changes and yet …..

During 1974 and 1975 I worked summer college jobs at the Village Store in Yosemite Valley. It was probably the best crossroads in the park to see “yosemite people” of every ilk. And I noticed them and enjoyed interacting with them all, along with all of the other splendors of the park during my free time. In the Fall of 1975, I landed my dream job at the Park, employed for the next 12 years by the Yosemite Association, now the Yosemite Conservancy. On my first week in that new job, my dear new boss, Marie, who I was in line to replace, informed me of an evening “assignment” we would be participating in. She wanted to introduce me to park personnel I would be working with. The park’s Chief Ranger had recently been assigned a transfer to a new position in a different park, and I was to accompany her to his farewell party. During his goodbye speech he noted how much he was going to miss the park people. I was agast; no mention of Half Dome, El Cap, the Falls!!! 12 years later I left my early career at the park and to this day I miss all of those geologic and natural treasures. But the bonds I made with people, both visitors and staff, then and there have lasted as strongly as any sunset alpenglo on the peaks of Tuolumne Meadows or the scent of springtime in the air at Happy Isles.

And it was delightful to see my dear friend Julia Parker featured in today’s photo selection. For several years my office looked out into the Indian Garden where she and her daughters and others demonstrated the crafts of the Natives.

My husband and I met there in the summer of 1964. He was a bus boy and second year a waiter. I was only there one summer and I was a maid in camp curry, tent cabins. Frieda did not like me but i loved the gig, cleaning cabins on the route young men took to boys town. I was looking for a friend and all the men stopped to talk with me on their way home from their various shifts. My husband became a doctor and I became a social worker. We are in our 70s now but that year marked a turning point in our lives. We had a son together. All from a chance meeting in Yosemite and our days off hiking together in the high country or watching the fire falls. We can’t make it up there any more but our son continues to love to hike in the high country in Yosemite. What a great blessing to this earth! Thanks for the memories.

Thank YOU for sharing your great memories Ms. Bianchini! In addition to my photographs, the book includes memories from Ruth Ann Adams who was a nurse in the valley in 1959 as well as reflections on summers working his way through college from Kevin Starr, California State Librarian emeritus. Enjoy!

Your photos really capture the many moods of the park. I spent my first summer out of high school in 1972, hiking in the high country and camping in the valley, then worked at The Lodge as a maid for about a year. I lived in the dorms at Degnan’s where there were fewer rules and more parties! I always wanted to write a book with a chapter about each wild character I met along the way. The valley felt like a womb to me. I left my heart there along the trail, or maybe in a meadow somewhere.